Chapter 27 — The Black Oath

The wind screamed over the barren ridge as Shinsuke stood alone, his hand clenched around the hilt of his ruined sword. Below him, the battlefield burned—a tapestry of fire, blood, and shattered dreams. The enemy was driven back, but the cost had been unbearable.

His allies lay motionless behind him, some dead, others barely breathing. Even the corrupted beasts retreated, sensing the shift in power. But there was no victory in Shinsuke’s eyes.

Only silence.

Only wrath.

A shadow coiled around his body—black tendrils from the abyss whispering to him, responding to the seething despair in his heart.

“Swear it,” a voice urged from within the darkness.
“Swear that you’ll destroy everything that shackled you.”

Shinsuke sank to one knee, his blood dripping onto the scorched earth. The cursed core within him pulsed—a heartbeat of oblivion.

He whispered the words that would seal his fate.

“I swear… by the blood I’ve lost, and the world that betrayed me—
I will burn their heavens to the ground.”

A column of obsidian light erupted around him. The sky howled as if mourning his vow. Wings of pitch-black energy burst from his back, and his eyes turned void-white.

Somewhere far away, the gods shivered.

He had taken the Black Oath.

There was no going back now.